The present invention relates to materials handling. More specifically, the present invention relates to an automated clothes handling apparatus and method that allows a user to make deposits of soiled clothing and withdrawals of dry cleaned clothes without a customer service attendant.
Dry cleaning services are becoming an increasingly important part of daily hygiene and personal property protection. With the introduction of new clothing fabrics and increasing demand for more fragile traditional fibers, such as silk, the need for dry cleaning services have increased over time. Dry cleaning provides many benefits for individuals who use such services. A prime benefit of dry cleaning is the ability to clean fibers that are unsuitable to be cleaned by traditional water washing. Dry cleaning also saves time. Individuals with soiled clothes merely have to drop off the soiled clothing at the dry cleaners and later pick up the cleaned clothes. As such, dry cleaning is extensively used by individuals who have busy schedules.
A further advantage of dry cleaning is the superior cleaning ability for xe2x80x9chard to removexe2x80x9d problem areas of soiled clothing. Dry cleaners, because they accumulate many items of clothing which are soiled in the same way, can be efficient in the care for such clothes. Soiled clothes may be segregated by clothing type or soiling conditions to assess, treat and care for the clothes. This ability to perform function repetitively results in efficiency for the operation.
Although there are many advantages for dry cleaning operations, several drawbacks limit the overall dry cleaning experience and usefulness. The first drawback is that in general, dry cleaning operations are only open during normal business hours. Dry cleaners must employ customer assistants to handle the clothes and obtain money from the customer. During off-peak hours, the customer assistants may have few customers, therefore resulting in a financial burden to the dry cleaning operation owner ultimately requiring shut down of the customer operations part of the facility for maximum financial efficiency. Busy individuals, however, often desire to use dry cleaning services at hours according to their schedules which do not correspond to dry cleaning open hours. As a result, certain potential customers are limited from using dry cleaning as they cannot attend the dry cleaners during the open hours.
A second drawback is long wait times for service at peak attendance hours. Often, people visit the dry cleaners at similar times, such as at lunch time or immediately following the end of a work day. The large number of customers and the relatively few customer service attendants results in long wait times negatively impacting customer service.
A third drawback is the cost of service for dry cleaning operations. Numerous people are employed, such as cashiers and customer service representatives, to help receive and dispense clothes. During non-peak times, little if any activity occurs from arriving customers. This inactivity results in financial inefficiency, which is ultimately passed to the customer. The cost of dry cleaning services consequently rises and some customers may be unable or unwilling to pay for dry cleaning services.
A fourth drawback for the dry cleaning industry is degradation of the product from multiple handling. After dry cleaning, the cleaned clothes are placed upon a rack system to maintain the clothes in a neat and wrinkle free configuration. When a customer attends the dry cleaners to pick up the cleaned clothes, an attendant pulls the clothes off a rack system and hands the clothes to the customer. The attendant, however well meaning or trained, may inadvertently wrinkle or disturb the cleaned clothes, thereby degrading the final product. The dense packing of the clothes on the rack coupled with the level of skill of the attendant directly impacts the final product and ultimately customer satisfaction.
A last drawback occurs during peak attendance hours. In processing dry cleaning orders, the attendants often receive compensation from the customer in the form of cash which must be changed by the attendant. The overall efficiency of the operation is limited by operations, such as change making, which have very little added benefit to the consumer.
There is a need to provide a dry cleaning service which will provide an efficient handling of clothes which is accessible to customers during more convenient hours.
There is a further need to supplement and/or replace current methods and apparatus to handle customer service operators during peak attendance times.
There is a still further need to increase overall efficiency of the dry cleaning industry and to limit overall costs stemming from inefficient use of personnel.
There is a need to increase product quality output by limiting unnecessary handling steps which may cause wrinkles or damage the overall product for the customer.
There is a further need to reduce inefficiency in the dry cleaning industry by limiting change making and encouraging efficient payment/compensation transactions.
It is therefore an object of the present invention to provide a dry cleaning service which will provide an efficient service of handling of clothes which is accessible to customers during more convenient hours.
It is also an object of the present invention to supplement and/or replace current methods and apparatus to handle customer service operators during peak attendance times.
It is also an object of the present invention to increase overall efficiency of the dry cleaning industry and to limit overall costs stemming from inefficient use of personnel.
It is also an object of the present invention to increase product quality output by limiting unnecessary handling steps which may cause wrinkles or damage the overall product for the customer.
It is also an object of the present invention to reduce inefficiency in the dry cleaning industry by limiting change making and encouraging efficient payment/compensation transactions.
The objectives above are achieved as illustrated and described. The invention provides a material handling apparatus comprising a material delivery configuration with a first end and a second end, a transfer configuration connected to the first end of the material delivery configuration, a movable material handling arrangement configured to transfer at least one set of material on hangers supported by the arrangement to the material delivery configuration, a computer configured to control apparatus functions, a user interface configured to accept, process and provide data to a user, the user interface connected to the computer to transfer and receive data, a clearing arrangement configured to remove material from the transfer configuration, and an enclosure configured to separate the user from the movable material handling arrangement.
The invention also provides a method of moving material comprising, loading at least one set of material onto a movable material handling arrangement, inputting information into a computer for the at least one set of material, inputting information from a user interface, transferring the information from the user interface to the computer, processing the information from the at least one set of material and the user interface, indexing the movable material handling arrangement based upon the processed information, transferring material from the movable material handling arrangement to a material delivery configuration and transferring material from the material delivery configuration to a transfer configuration.